The FINANCIAL — Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults with education or training beyond a four-year college degree agree that they learn or do something interesting every day. This is higher than those with a bachelor’s degree only (66%), some college or a two-year associate degree (65%), or a high school education or less (63%).
Gallup and Healthways ask adults in the U.S. to rate their level of agreement with the statement, “You learn or do something interesting every day,” on a five-point scale. Along with other questions, Gallup uses this measure to calculate the extent to which someone is thriving — or strong and consistent — in his or her purpose well-being. Purpose well-being — defined as liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goals — is just one of the five well-being elements that the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index measures.
Because factors such as income could affect education levels and, therefore, learning or doing interesting things on a daily basis, the analysis accounted for age, gender, race, income, region and marital status among the percentage who agreed with the statement, according to Gallup.
Researchers could measure lifelong learning in a number of quantifiable, activity-based ways, such as asking graduates how many books or articles they have read as well as whether and how often they visit a library or search the Internet for new information. Or researchers could measure it by asking more abstract questions, including whether graduates seek out conversations with people from diverse backgrounds or foreign countries. By asking whether someone agrees that they learn or do something interesting every day, Gallup and Healthways can discern whether graduates are still learning later in life or not.
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